


Deep Roots

by thinlizzy2



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Arbor Day, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Season/Series 07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-19 09:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7355584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinlizzy2/pseuds/thinlizzy2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On Arbor Day, Ben Wyatt reflects on his own personal happiness, which includes his kids, good friends and Leslie Knope.  </p><p>And, of course, a calzone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deep Roots

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OhWilloTheWisp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhWilloTheWisp/gifts).



Ben has always had a strange habit of narrating his own life in his head. He doesn't know if other people do it - he wouldn't even know how to ask - but it's something that he's done ever since he was a child. When his mother would put his dinner in front of him, he would force down his over-cooked sprouts while thinking _Benji Wyatt hopes that his demonstrated commitment to good nutrition will keep his parents from arguing_. When he got a bit older, he would add _in vain_ to such thoughts, but he still couldn't keep them from forming. On the day when he as sworn in as mayor, he took office while thinking to himself _the man who they call 'little Benji Wyatt' may have an uphill battle ahead of him, but he can do this; he knows it_. And on the day he was forced to leave his office, it had been to the internal announcement that _this is the lowest that Ben Wyatt has ever fallen, but he is still young and perhaps there's still hope for him_. He's never stopped doing it, never even tried, so as he watches the scene in front of him unfolding his internal narrator bemusedly announces _Ben Wyatt is married to a tornado_. 

He would find it hard to argue with that, even if it wasn't really his own thought. 

Leslie is indeed a whirlwind of energy all around them. Until he came to Pawnee, Ben never would have imagined celebrating Arbor Day with anything more than a brief and covert nod to a tree if he was sure no one was looking. But so much has changed for him in recent years that the fact that his wife treats this minor holiday with all the seriousness of a Presidential Inauguration crossed with Christmas is just one of million new reasons to smile. 

So he stands in the middle of a field, grinning like an idiot as he digs a hole in the soil for his sapling while Leslie fills up the space all around him. She firmly reminds the triplets that trees are friends, not food as she gently leads Ann – pregnant again and looking slightly cowed by all the child-generated energy around her – to a folding chair set up in the shade of a big oak. She barks out instructions - _let's go, grab a shovel, dig dig dig!_ \- to Tom and Donna, who are resolutely ignoring her in favor of comparing specs on their new vacation homes. She unpacks a wide array of snacks: chocolate chip cookies for the kids, homemade kale-and-squash chips for Chris, some kind of trendy cheese paired with an even trendier fruit for Tom, a giant bag of jelly beans and pixie stix for Andy. And then she abandons the picnic in disarray to dash across the park and coo over the Gergiches' newest grandchild, a tiny pink dot wrapped in a blue blanket. 

Ben rests his shovel against a tree trunk and goes to deal with the food; he knows Leslie will be crushed if it gets spoiled. He is laying napkins over trays and checking that the saran wrap is holding when he realizes that Leslie hadn't unpacked everything. One small and oddly shaped package swathed in tin foil is left at the bottom of the cooler. He picks it up, holds it to his nose and smiles. Because _of course_ Leslie would pack him a calzone. And _of course_ she would hide it away so no one could see it. 

He feels a sharp slap on his rear end and chuckles to himself even as he spins around to confirm what he already knows. He wife smirks up a him. "Ben! Get that cute little hiney of your in gear. We've got dozens of trees to plant." She notices what he's holding and leans in close, talking out of the side of her mouth. "Baby, hide the c-a-l-z-o-n-e! I have a reputation to keep up!" 

He laughs and tucks it into the inner pocket of his jacket. On a whim, he leans down and pecks her on the lips. "Does it have green peppers and mushrooms?" 

She shudders theatrically. "God, you're gross." She stands on tiptoe to give him a longer, sweeter kiss. "And yes." She points back at his abandoned sapling. " _DIG._ " 

He gives her a mock-salute. "Aye aye, captain." 

In between Wesley's splinters, Stephen's boredom-induced hyperactivity and Sonia's very loud and persistent announcements that Ann and Chris's new baby would have a vaGIna and not a PEEEEnis, he somehow manages to get the tree into the ground. There are dozens more to do – of course there are; it was Leslie who ordered the trees – but he figures he's earned a break. He heads for the tempting shadows of the larger trees and and the cooler filled with nothing but ice and beer that was Andy and April's contribution to the celebration. 

The two of them are making good leeway into consuming what they brought as well. Ben can't help grinning. Andy Dwyer is closer to forty than twenty now, and a well-respected children's TV personality besides, but with a couple of drinks in him he still looks like an overgrown frat boy. Ben supposes that won't ever change. To tell the truth, he's rather sentimentally glad of it. He flops down on the grounds next to them and cracks open his own beer. "Don't have too many", he warns them. "Remember, we're heading to Tom's Bistro for more drinks after this." Craig had been moaning for weeks about all the extra work choosing their post-planting wine pairings was causing for him, and Ben is looking forward to the look on his face once Andy drops a few ice cubes into a glass and starts to chug.

But April shakes her head. "Don't tell Leslie, but we're barbecuing with Ron and Diane tonight. We'll just slip away after the planting." 

Ben nods, understanding instantly. Of course he won't say anything to his wife. He knows Ron Swanson's absence, and the rift between the two of them, must be a dark stain on the otherwise perfect joy of her Arbor Day celebrations. He sees it in the way she refuses to glance at the leftover bacon-wrapped sausages that certainly wouldn't be still there if their old friend was in attendance and in the lone bottle of Lagavulin that someone – he knows who – left alongside the beers, just in case. "Say hi for me, okay?" April promises that she will and Andy asks if there's no way that Leslie and Ben might want to come along.

Ben shakes his head as he watches Leslie, still scrambling around from place to place. His wife isn't perfect and he knows it. In addition to her need to micromanage even the details of a simple tree-planting picnic, she's also stubborn to a fault; her huge heart absorbs and preserves every injury. She has such high standards for friendships that it's just as hard for others to live up to them as it is for her to forgive them when they fail at it. And when it comes time for her to part ways with someone who she used to love, she can never quite manage to let them go. 

He doesn't love her less for any of this. In fact, it's very much the opposite. 

As though she can feel him watching, Leslie pauses in her tasks. She looks over at him and smiles and waves, her golden hair shining in the golden sunlight. Then she's gone again, running towards the pathway to help Craig and Garry untie a root bag. Ben watches her go and laughs to himself, grateful for the moment. 

_Even after all these years, Ben Wyatt still can't believe he was lucky enough to convince the most amazing woman in the world to marry him._ Ben nods in agreement and raises his beer in a silent toast to the wisdom of the narrator in his head. And then he drains his beer, hauls himself to his feet and heads down the hill, to help Leslie with whatever she needs.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Not Prime Time 2016 for OhWilloTheWisp, who requested Ben and Leslie celebrating Arbor Day together.
> 
> Thank you so much for requesting these two. It was a lot of fun to go back and fall in love with them all over again!


End file.
